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Abstract

Background: Experiences from practice in surgical units led us to question what makes teamwork effective and elegant, and also reflect upon the causes of situations where the teamwork is less than optimal and team members become frustrated. Purpose and research question: We based our research design on some of the relational factors defined in Reeves et al. (2010) conceptual framework for interprofessional teamwork. This was done to explore how surgical nurses experience these factors in relation to cooperation in surgical teams. We chose the following research question: How do surgical nurses experience the relational factors of cooperation in surgical teams? Method: We used qualitative methods in this study. Data collection was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Our data material consists of interviews with nine theatre nurses. We analysed the material using qualitative content analysis as outlined by Graneheim and Lundman (2004). Results: Our results show that theatre nurses find cooperation in surgical teams to be characterized by members from different occupational groups who closely cooperate for several hours in the same room. Relational factors with attitudes, emotions and reactions in the surgical team are therefore enhanced, and have a large influence on team members and team cooperation in both positive and negative ways. Conclusions: Based on our findings we conclude that there is room for improvement of cooperation in surgical teams. Research should be carried out to develop knowledge about how interpersonal aspects can improve teamwork and how such strategies might be implemented in surgical teams.